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Friday, December 4, 2015

Students in Leah’s Current Topics and Research in Science and Technology class recently completed a unit on climate change. Their assignment was to learn how climate change impacts populations around the world directly and indirectly then create a fundraising campaign to combat climate change impacts in Ethiopia. Students created a Prezi describing the problem and emailed the Prezi to all students earlier this week asking them to vote for one of three initiatives. The Prezi can be found here: Climate Change Prezi

Several exciting activities have been happening in Rosario’s classes! Spanish III students recently created a story using the iPad app Book Creator. Stories were based on a crime scene set up in the classroom and required students to include a narration of the events using past tenses and utilize a video of a witness interrogation. You can check out their work here: Crime scene book

Meanwhile, students in AP Spanish have been Skyping with students at a school near Barcelona and discussing the Catalan independence movement happening right now. An example of their conversation can be found here: AP Spanish Skype

Students in Spanish 5 Honors have also been Skyping, but this time with two alumni who are currently in Spain studying on a semester abroad. The entire class period was spent discussing (in Spanish, of course) life it Spain and what it’s like to be a student there.

Susie’s Rebel Writers class (English 11) has been busy working on their Rebel Projects, a six-week long project in which students become rebels themselves by identifying and tackling an issue in which they want to effect change. Throughout their project, students document their thoughts online using a wiki or a blog so that peers can follow their work and offer comments. You can see the end result of a Rebel Project upstairs near the library. Two students created a “Humans of BB&N” bulletin board. Their goal in becoming a “rebel” was to find a way for BB&N people to have an opportunity to better know one another.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Gustavo and Karina just returned from the 2015 Symposium on Scholarship of Teaching & Learning at Mount Royal University in Banff, Alberta, Canada. This conference aims to gather teachers and scholars to develop teaching and learning research. Gustavo and Karina’s presentation was entitled, “Design Thinking: A Novel Inquiry-Based Pedagogy to Problem-Solving in the 21st Century.” They shared the research that they’ve been doing for the past two years through their Senior Spring Project Mini-Course in which students worked on two problems: deforestation in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and resource management in the Sarstun region of Guatemala. Students also interned at a locally-based NGO with ties to those communities which allowed the students to be involved in the solution-making phase of the processes.

On Saturday, Mike B and the Robotics Team are going to their first robotics competition of the year at North Andover High school. This year, BB&N is excited to bring two teams to the competition! Students this weekend will compete with 40 teams in the Vex Robotics competition. The goal of this year’s contest is for the robot to gather balls from the playing field and shoot them into a net. Students have had since September to design and build their robots.

And, in other exciting robotics news, three students are currently in the middle of a virtual robotics competition (Zero Robotics, hosted by MIT and NASA). In this virtual competition, our team (currently in an alliance with teams from Italy and from Maine) has to create software that controls virtual satellites in a fierce head-to-head satellite battle. In the end, the winning team’s software will actually be sent to the International Space Station so that the competition can be carried out on live, real satellites! Go Knights!

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Programming has always been a very important aspect of our lives. At first, it was something cool that we didn’t really understand but nevertheless wanted to mess with. Whether it was making games with Processing or writing code to help with math problems, we saw it as a fun tool. In sophomore year, two of us took AP Computer Science in order to really build and expand on our knowledge. During this time, we also participated in programming competitions such as the USACO, where we have qualified in the silver and gold divisions. At the end of year, our final project was to make a mobile application that notified people in BB&N about their current classes and schedule. We also wanted it to be flexible for schedule changes and capable of notifying students about school wide events with push notifications. While much of the actual logic and backend was completed for the final project, we continued to fix some bugs throughout the summer. We felt that with more people and ideas, we could make this app better and thus the idea of a Mobile Application Development club, or M.A.D. club was conceived.

Going forward, we have a member working on a better UI for the application. The rest of the club is discussing possible future features relating to the app. We would like to make it possible for all schools to use, not just BB&N. We are considering adding a lunch menu feature as well. Besides the BB&N app, we are also discussing other projects such as games. The club time is used to bounce ideas and communicate plans; actual coding occurs behind the scenes. Club members demonstrate code and teach newcomers as well. Currently we meet on Tuesdays and we are considering meeting on Thursdays to get more time to communicate. For us, it’s really cool to have a direct impact in a community and create applications that people can use to make their lives more efficient. At the same time, we like to have a little fun too– so we mess around and design games.

Friday, October 9, 2015

This past summer, two Spanish teachers spent two weeks revising the curriculum for Spanish IV: Culture and Communication. With an emphasis on themes, areas of the Spanish-speaking world, and communicative functions, they developed their own web-based curriculum with the hopes of making the course more interactive, authentic, and lively. They also that that this new approach will allow them to tailor the course to the specific needs and interests of the students at this level. Currently, in both classes, students are working on a video project that examines the role of technology in our lives. As inspiration, students watched videos in Spanish that highlighted how much people rely on technology and how
much our lives are impacted by it.

Two English teachers also met throughout the summer to review and overhaul the Grade 9 grammar unit. They developed new material to be used this year and have decided to expand their unit throughout the winter trimester. The unit starts with parts of speech then progresses to the complex pieces of grammar, with the goal of creating more “effective, concise, powerful prose.” This material was presented to the department last month and is shared with the department on their departmental Haiku site.

The Math Department’s new course, Computer Programming, is off and running! Students in the class recently wrote a lab to calculate how many coffees would need to be purchased in order to make a 10% year-long coffee discount card a worthwhile expense. In addition, students also have created a program that can have a short conversation with the user. In class today, students witnessed the running of a rock, paper, scissors program that a student in AP Computer Science wrote, and the energy and enthusiasm was palpable! To quote one student, a sophomore in the class, “It’s so fun. Favorite class. Love it!”

Friday, June 12, 2015

My launch grant explored various math programs to use as a
supplement to our first grade Think Math curriculum.I was looking for a program that was easy to
manage, had an at-home component, and was fun for the students.I explored several programs including IXL, Symphony
Math Adapted Mind Math, and Splash Math.

This was the first program I
explored.It was easy to use and navigate
as a teacher.The graphics and quality
to the activities were not great.Kids
found it boring since the activities are basic math sheets that look like
worksheets they would complete in class.

This
program provides targeted instruction as well as benchmarks for students to
meet.It is similar to Lexia (phonics
program we use) and has an at-home component.The program was geared towards students who are high-risk math
students.Would look into purchasing
singe subscriptions, if available, for students who were in need of targeted
math support.

This program provided a
free month trial, which I explored as an individual.There were many categories of math topics to
choose from which correlates well with our Think Math curriculum.The games were fun and there were activities
for the different levels so it is appealing to kids.There is also the opportunity to choose from
different levels so it meets the needs of all students from those who need
support to those who need extension work.I came across this program later in the year and wasn’t able to get all
the information , but I plan to look into this program for future use in the
classroom and at home.

This program
was the best that I looked at as far as accessibility for teachers to navigate
and track student progress.I could set
up a class list and monitor kids work at various levels both at home and in
school.It provides categories for
students to select which topic they would like to work on and the topics align
with the Think Math curriculum we use.Under each topic there are various levels, for example, under addition,
students can do math facts to ten or work on addition problems using two digit
numbers.The games are fun and the students
reported that they enjoyed the games for practice.There is opportunity for students to move to
the different sections with ease while playing so they have a variety during
their time in the program.The student
reports the teacher can access are clear and provide accurate information about
student progress within each section along with information about whether they
have mastered the skill or need additional practice.

I piloted Splash Math in my classroom for several weeks,
having the children use the app during morning choice time.The positives were that it was fun to play,
easy to use, and covered a wide range of topics, which matched well with our
Think Math curriculum.The one negative
was the difficulty using the program on an ipad with just a trial
subscription.Moving forward I would
like to explore more about Splash Math versus Adapted Mind Math to see which
would better suit the needs of first graders at BB&N.I will also consider the cost of each program
versus the quality of the program and the purpose for the use of the program.I plan to continue this work into next year
with help from Jen to pilot programs and compare positives and negatives of the
programs being considered.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

For my launch grant, I piloted a project in which students were required to use Evernote to take notes in class to chronicle their work on an iPad (pictures, audio and text) and progress on an independent project, the building of a whirligig. As move we forward with the renovation and the shift with respect to technology (1:1), since I use Evernote for my own teaching and organization, I wanted to explore how to implement the use of Evernote by my students in/for class. Additionally, in our MS Tech Committee meetings, we have dedicated quite a bit of time to the idea of “work flow” and digital organization/management, and I was hoping that this exploration might help to garner some new insights into these discussions.

When we return to the MS post renovation, students will have laptops, so I am thinking about what my parameters around note-taking will be. Some questions for me are/were: Do I want to have a paperless classroom? If so, how do I do that? What is the best tool and what is the most seamless work flow?

Because of my own work with Evernote, I figured it would be great to try with my students. Evernote has a free 1-GB/month plan that students can sign up for with an email account (BBN Gmail), and it is multiplatform (iPad, Android, Mac & PC). Evernote also has many web add-ons and additional supplemental apps (Penultimate for iPad, Skitch for iPad and Mac). Additionally, if the classroom where I teach has an Apple TV, students with Mac devices were able to project their work.

Based on my exploration, I think that as we move to 1:1, Evernote might prove beneficial in many facets of our work here at BB&N.

· Teaching and learning digital organization

· Note-taking

· Creating yearlong portfolios (with both scanned and digital work)

· Research

· Sharing notes, ideas, brainstorms electronically

· Using less paper (we are not yet at paperless) and ink

Right now, since we have a BBN account, I have explored benefits of Evernote Business and have helped other teachers explore and use this tool for planning and/or for teaching. Additionally, during the BB&N un-conference, I offered a workshop on Evernote and have presented my findings at a faculty meeting. See movie of powerpoint presentation

During the 2013-14 school year, Svetlana Grinsphan discovered a technological resourced called Chibitronics. Chibitronics was created by a Ph.D. student named Jie Qi from MIT who combined her passion for craft, art, and engineering and created a DIY manual and kit to that made circuits and LED light accessible to the public. The goal then was to bring this technology into my classroom for students to combine with their art in a meaningful way. That summer, I applied for a Technology Department Launch Grant to make this vision a reality.This year in the fall, Dan Rile and several of the MS faculty "tinkered" with this technology and brainstorm project ideas. Kelley Schultheis and Svetlana sat with me again in the spring to strategize how students might interact with this new medium. In the spring, students in my Drawing and Painting Class each received a manual and a kit; together, we explored the instantaneous pleasure of designing a circuit and making something light up. Each student designed a project to incorporate LED lights within their semester-long drawing and painting exploration. The students were given freedom to choose the paper surfaces and drawing materials that would most effectively achieve their vision. The one requirement was that the drawing had to stand alone--it had to be as visually effective alone as with the circuitry enhancements. The students were thrilled with the process from start to finish and were incredibly proud of their accomplishments. For me, working collaboratively with faculty and embarking on this project with a spirit of exploration alongside the students made using unfamiliar technology less daunting. Quite the opposite--I was amazed by the students' exceptionally high level of engagement throughout and the ways in which they helped each other with the challenges they faced in a truly collegial way. The artwork the students made...in my unbiased opinion...were simply stunning"

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Video, as an instructional tool, is on the rise in recent years. I used my launch grant to learn methods of making instructional videos for the mathematics classes that I teach and how to organize those resources. In this blog, I will describe three different types of screencasting software and how I created my Google site.

So, which screencasting software is best? It depends on your comfort level with video-editing software, and how much time you want to spend making your screencasts look professional. Here’s my opinion of three particular types:

Explain Everything in an inexpensive app (currently $2.99) only available on an iPad or iPhone. I never experimented with this software on an iPhone, because I don’t think that the screen is large enough. In fact, I don’t actually find the screen big enough on an iPad for most of the educational videos that I wish to record. But if the videos that you want to make don’t need a large screen and if you are comfortable on an iPad, Explain Everything is a very easy piece of software to use. It records on-screen drawing, annotation, and audio through the iPad microphone. Exporting your videos is simple. For a teacher that is an iPad user and wants to begin making videos, I would highly recommend Explain Everything.

Camtasia is available on either a Mac or a PC, but for a cost. It is a very powerful software product though, and will allow you to do almost everything you would want to do in an educational screencast. You can record through the webcam or the screen, add clickable links throughout the video, and easily share videos on YouTube. The possibilities are actually a little overwhelming for the novice videographer. I would recommend Camtasia only for teachers with some screencasting experience and demanding of a professional result.

It’s free! I think it also looks professional. Both Mac and Windows users can run this software on their computer. You can have it record your webcam or your screen. I found it to be rather easy to use and make small edits. It’s simple to upload videos directly to YouTube or save videos to your computer as an mp4 file. I think that Screencast-O-Matic offers the optimum combination in terms of features, ease of use, and price. I highly recommend this software to any teacher who is starting out in screencasting and wants more screen space or edibility than an iPad offers.

This past year I found that I needed to organize all my online resources in one central location. My created Google site contains websites that I found to be valuable, instructional videos for different topics, and mathematics software programs, such as graphing calculators. It also includes suggested follow-up questions to ask students once they have completed watching certain educational videos. When I have experimented with the flipped classroom approach to teaching, I found it critical to ask my students follow-up questions to videos watched for homework so that I could be sure that they actually watched it and learned something.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Since the beginning of the summer and during the school year, I have been using HAIKU with all my classes as I did in the previous year. This year in particular, I decided to work on a combination of Google with HAIKU as I requested in my technology grant last summer.

It was very interesting on how easy it is to mix both platforms but at the same time, it was difficult to keep up using it for everything. I asked my students to use Google docs and Google slides for any work that was requested in the class. This system worked very well. One of the things that I could not do this year was Google group discussion. I will be continuing the next school year adding more to what already we do with both, Google and Haiku.

It takes time to explore the endless possibilities I can find, especially with Google. I learned to use the green screen, Camtasia, and Screen cast. I would love to explore more the Camtasia and Screen cast to create my own grammar videos. I also learned many similar things in my GOA courses. This was very important and valuable to do at the same time I was trying to do the grant.

By learning all of these technology techniques I realized that I needed to keep up with my students learning styles and other ways so I could reach each one of their needs. And I think these two platforms will definitely help me figure out how to access to them either at school, home, or at any place they go.

I post my syllabus and other materials such as videos, readings, pictures, etc. in Haiku. I also put up Google documents and slides in Haiku. I started using the Haiku grading system but I stopped after the second semester because I noticed that I wasn’t been fair with the grading system. This is a big ISSUE that I need to solve and I am asking for help. At the end of the school year, I had to manually calculate my students’ grades because I got stocked in the program.

Thursday, June 4, 2015

The time and training I received to work on Haiku was very important for me. It was a new platform for me and I needed to have the time over the summer (and the year) to learn how to use it and also explore whether I needed to use other platforms or not because of possible restrictions with using Arabic. I was (and still am) interested in making Haiku the second textbook for my classes. This grant helped me begin this project and explore options and figure out what will and won’t work for my classes.

My main interest was to offer the students a place to engage the language through blogging but that did not work out as I had imagined so I decided to use Haiku for projects instead and from there try to develop the pages where students find a place to engage the language outside of class time.

I use Haiku now to share links of songs and movies that we watch and talk about in the class…each class has access to material of the previous year and I also post my assignments and syllabus. I also found out the more I use Haiku, the more interest the students have in using it. It is also my goal for next year to connect grading with homework assignment to make it easier for students to keep track of their missing assignments and stay up to date with their grades.

The students who run, write, and produce The Vanguard’s eight issues a year do so with very little reporting experience and no journalism course to drive or direct their efforts. The 10-person editorial board meets with me once a week during Activities and then once before each monthly publication date for an all-out, all-day (and sometimes all-night) production effort to lay out the paper and send it to the printers. Much of the learning is peer-to-peer and goes on behind the scenes, with feedback conversations filling Google docs and running over email from writer to editor, editor to editor-in-chief, EIC to faculty advisor, and back along the chain. Discussions about reporting are more likely to happen during 5-minute hallway interactions or 15-minute lunch breaks than in a controlled and contemplated learning environment.

The Vanguard is by nature a very results-oriented undertaking, then, with much of the process invisible to the novice and daunting for the more seasoned student reporter, who has learned by doing, to explain. The Vanguard “classroom” is by nature already flipped, and with so much to learn, so much to practice and pass on from production cycle to production cycle, it was a perfect candidate for some flipped classroom curricular attention. Over the summer I used a launch grant to learn some new applications in order to deliver task-specific journalism instruction in accessible, appealing ways. I focused on interviewing skills.

Using the presentation software Haiku Deck —which, as far as I can tell, has no relationship to the similarly named online platform that hosts our courses— I built student editors two tutorials to share with new writers as the editors guide them through the process of preparing for and conducting interviews with their sources. The slide format helps the editor pace the conversation, and the visual format makes the steps more memorable while differentiating the material from the slew of word docs and manuals already in the writers’ possession. Here they are:

I wanted to learn Haiku Deck because I’m interested in effective visual storytelling and in easy access to millions of high-quality images already available through Creative Commons. Using it is fun. Beyond applications to The Vanguard, this year I wound up inviting students to build their own Haiku Decks at the end of our Pride and Prejudice unit. The instructions were to present the novel from one character’s point of view using no fewer than 15 and no more than 25 slides and featuring no more than 25 words per slide. I got some hilarious distillations (and the students earned some extra credit while becoming still more tech-savvy). Here’s one from the character Charlotte Lucas, BFF to the protagonist Elizabeth Bennet:

I also learned to use Creatavist, a multi-media storytelling platform I heard about at the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Because Creatavist can easily embed sound bites and audio files (not to mention images and videos), it helped me complement the how-to decks on interviewing with something more interactive. On Creatavist, I took a not-so-good interview conducted by one of the editors and broke it down for the others, commenting along the way about what was working, what wasn’t, and where the opportunities were for better follow-up questions and changes in the conversational dynamic. It turned into a really cool-looking online resource, sort of like a two-way textbook chapter. To build it, I wound up learning how to convert ma4 recordings into mp3 files and how to trim mp3 files in Quicktime. (I also learned how not to trim audio files in Garage Band).

Here is the link to the interview assessment tool I built on Creatavist:

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

During the 2014-2015 school year, we explored the use of the MaKey MaKey kits to see their usefulness in the science curriculum. We purchased five kits and spent time tinkering with them to understand how they could enhance what we do. Makey Makey kits as described by their creators are “MaKey MaKey is an invention kit for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It's a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything inbetween.”We used the kits during the electricity unit in third grade. Kids had to discover what materials allowed the Makey Makey kits to work and what didn’t to reinforce the concept of conductivity. In addition, we used the Makey Makey kits to host a club during the winter months with students in the New Wing. The Makey Makey club was a big hit! Small groups of students tinkered with the kits and designed their own project. Projects included making human bongos, musical staircases, musical sipping straws, typing with fruit, triggering a video about locks when a door opened, and a digital water fountain prank which took your picture as you took a drink! Please see the link attached to see the kids in action. We also used Makey Makey kits during our Winter Family Science Saturday Extravaganza. The Makey Makey station was one of six tinkering activity centers that families could explore.

We enjoyed tinkering with the Makey Makey kits and finding ways to control the computer with everyday objects. We found the ideal use of the kits was in a more open ended, less content driven setting like the clubs and the family science Saturday event. The kits encourage creativity and problem solving, but required more time that could be given in the structured nature of an electricity unit. As a result of our explorations, we decided that Makey Makey kits would best be suited to an informal educational setting like an afterschool club, a family science saturday, a makerspace, or during club times at the Lower School rather than being a staple of the science curriculum.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

This year 2nd grade learned about Maps in social studies. During this time, they thought about how the school needed a map to help visitors find different buildings on campus. Below is a summary of their learning exploration in Technology and the process. Click on the link below to read more about each step in the map making process.

At the end of the project, 2nd graders used maps they brought into class as examples for what they wanted their campus map to look like. You can now find these maps at the Lower School Admissions office.

Friday, March 27, 2015

This year's 1st Grade has been very passionate about the game Minecraft. During Technology class we followed the students' curiosity of what makes Minecraft characters "look like blocks". Below you can read about our exploration journey.

Come and see the 1st Grade Minecraft Pixel Portraits at the Lower School in the Lehner Center (1st floor)!

What Are Pixels?

Introduction:
While using a drawing software called Kid Pix, 1st grade students were very interested in talking about why the stamps in the program looked like they belonged in Minecraft. The first graders began to make observations about the different stamps.

Why do the stamps in Kid Pix look like they belong in Minecraft?

“They can’t be from Minecraft because there are something [objects] that don’t exist in Minecraft” – Hakan

“Only some of the things look like they are in Minecraft. The things that look like they have blocks in them could be in Minecraft” – Skylar

“Some stamps have square edges and some stamps of smooth edges. The smooth edges [stamps] can’t be in Minecraft.” - Salar

“I know that the squares are called pixels” – Jonathan

Pixel Play
“What is a pixel?” – Skylar

“They are apart of pictures and scenes.” – Jonathan

“When you write letters or notes you can find a lot of teeny tiny pixels in them.” – Alex

Research:

Students create pictures on Kid Pix only using stamps. A few students experiment with the “Edit” button. The class visits each other’s computers and shares what they have learned.

Student Quotes:

“I found how to edit a stamp. You go to the pencil button and click on it. Then you can change the stamp however you want. “ – Salar

“If you click on the eraser tool the whole stamp will erase [the stamp]!” – Ryan

“You can make your own stamp if you erase the stamp that was there” - Danny

“You have to move the mouse slowly or the squares don’t line up.” – Ben F.

Pixel Play Part 2

Research:

Graph Paper Sketch

Students create a picture on large graph paper. Each box represents a pixel. First graders then recreate their image in the editor screen on Kid Pix. Students can then create a picture using their stamp as many times as they would like.

Pixel This!

Research:
Students play an online game on the NASA website called Pixel This. After playing the game we learn, “each square is called a "picture element," or "pixel." The more pixels there are, the more details we see. This is how digital cameras work.”

Student Quotes:
“[Looking at the screen] The “O” looks like its circle because it is smooth, but I think they are square pixels” – Chloe

“A pixel is a square” - Finely

“You can make things out of them. Like the picture on the computer.” – Carl

“Pixels are really small but they can be big” – Emma

“Pixels are made out of even tinier squares that form something” - Ben F.

Are Pixels Important?

Summary:
Students watch a short clip of how pixels are used in TV screens (color and black and white). The class discusses where else they might find pixels.

“They make up everything we see on the computer or iPad or TV.” - Sofia

“The [projector] screen uses pixels! You can see the pixels in each letter!” - Alex

“Pixels can be different colors” – Chloe

“It [pixels] can be any color” – Riley

“You can draw with pixels to make a character.” -Ryan

Pixel Portraits

Project:

Students create pixel self-portrait (Minecraft character) with a photograph, graph paper, and Kid Pix stamp editor. Before starting their self-portrait the class discussed what symmetry means and how symmetry can be used in our pixel drawings.

*In Math students have been learning about symmetry.

Step 1: Take a photo of each student.

Step 2: Draw an outline of head, arms, body, legs, and feet on graph paper. Check that both sides of portrait are symmetrical with the other.

Step 3: Add facial features and hair to the portrait. Students do not need to make these features symmetrical.

Pixel Portraits: Coloring

Step 1: Students start with coloring their hair color.

Step 2: Students then add color to their face and then work their way down their portrait.

Pixel Portrait Feedback

Summary:
Students have been talking about giving feedback to their peers in homeroom. In technology, the students continue to discuss how to give or get feedback and how it can help improve their work. After coloring their pixel portraits students take a museum walk and give one person in the room feedback about their work.

“I notice that you colored outside of the line. It might look neater if you color in the lines.”

“I like how you made a flower on your shirt.”

“I notice that you made it [the portrait] really small.”

Digital Pixel Portraits

Summary: Students build their pixel portrait in the stamp editor on Kid Pix. They use the feedback they receive from their peers to make improvements to their digital pixel portrait.

How Are Pixels Used?

Research: The class watches a fast forward video of a digital art designer using pixels to create animated characters like Wreck- It- Ralph and Fix-It-Felix.

“You can make video games out of pixels.” – Alec

“A pixel allows you to make characters.” – Giselle

“I was playing a computer game at home and I drew my character using pixels.” – Elizabeth

“My computer game doesn’t use pixels, it looks more real.” – Salar

[In response to Salar] “ The pixels might be teeny tiny and you couldn’t see them.” Jonathan